Mul - unesdoc - Unesco

It is a special privilege to be back in Zimbabwe
five years after the first Global Strategy meeting
and to pursue the seminal work of the first
meeting of African experts on ways and means
of improving the representation of African
heritage on the World Heritage List.
First of all, I should like to welcome you on behalf
of the Director-General of UNESCO, who
chaired the World Heritage Committee in 1999
and steadfastly expressed his full support for
international recognition of the African heritage.
We have many reasons for rejoicing: since 1995,
we have succeeded in building up a network of
African experts who are now familiar with the
modus operandi of the 1972 Convention. We
have raised awareness of the African heritage at
the international level and drawn attention to its
diversity, richness and particularities. Three sites
were included on the World Heritage List in
December 1999. We have also succeeded in
bringing together a galaxy of African and
international experts. The Convention’s three
Advisory Bodies have joined us here and their
contributions should prove instructive.
As you know, this meeting is a follow-up to the
expert meeting on African Cultural Landscapes,
which took place in Kenya in 1999. Some of you
attended that meeting and Will recall that one of
its recommendations stressed the need to clarify
the concepts of authenticity and integrity in the
light of the Nara Document.1 All of you here
have an impressive scientific background, as
well as wide experience on site. There is no
doubt that your active participation in the
discussions on the notions of authenticity and
integrity and their application in an African
’ Nara Document on Authenticity (1994).
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS
GALIA SAOUMA-FORER0
- lO-
Authenticity and lntegrity in an African Context
context Will pave the way to resolving this
question.
Since 1994, when the World Heritage Committee
adopted the Global Strategy, the Centre has
organised regional and national meetings and
seminars each year with the aim of enabling
African experts to acquaint themselves with
every aspect of the African heritage, to identify
its characteristics and to encourage the
preparation of tentative lists of sites and
nominations for their inclusion on the World
Heritage List.
Five publications have been prepared and
widely distributed; they cari also be obtained
from the Centre. Quite apart from their impact on
the continent itself, they have helped the
members of the Committee and the international
community to reflect on the notion, of living
cultures and the intrinsic links between nature
and culture SO amply illustrated in Africa that
constitute the specificity of the 1972 Convention.
The papers presented at this meeting Will report
on the state of progress concerning the
consideration given in Africa to heritage issues.
Today, at the request of the World Heritage
Committee, African and European experts have
gathered once again to tackle the central notions
of integrity and authenticity that must be
embodied in the presentation of nominations of
sites for inclusion on the List, and which were the
subject of recommendations at Amsterdam in
1998 but have not yet been reflected in the
Operational Guidelines. Those recommendations
request the Committee to reach a decision on a
proposa1 that aims at uniting the evaluation
criteria linking the conditions of integrity and
authenticity for inclusion of properties on the
World Heritage List.